Amber Gail "Aimee" Creek was an American teenage girl from Palatine, Illinois, who was murdered in February 1997. Creek's body was found in Burlington, Wisconsin, not long after she ran away from a youth shelter. Creek remained unidentified for approximately one year, and it was not until April 2014 that police arrested a suspect, James Eaton, a native of Palatine. Eaton pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of reckless homicide in late 2016.
Background
Amber Gail "Aimee" Creek was born on July 2, 1982, in Park Ridge, Illinois, and was raised in Palatine, Illinois. She was sexually abused at a young age, so she was taken from her mother's care and placed with her father, Robert Creek. She was described as a normal girl by friends and family until mid-1996, at around age 14, when her behavior drastically changed shortly after graduating from eighth grade at junior high school. Creek began to suffer from long periods of depression that had resulted in her using drugs and alcohol, and was described as a frequent runaway.
Creek became a ward of the state in late 1996 and ran away several times before finally leaving a North Side juvenile residential center for good on January 23, 1997. Although she did not disclose her location, she did regularly speak with family members by telephone.
Disappearance
Creek ran away from a juvenile residential center in Chicago on January 23, 1997, and was reported missing. She was last seen alive in February 1997, attending a hotel party with a group of men in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.
Murder
On February 9, 1997, Creek's frozen body was discovered by hunters in Karcher Springs State Natural Area, a nature reserve near Burlington, Wisconsin. It had been around two weeks after she had been reported missing, and it was believed she had been murdered at a different location, which has never been identified, and then disposed of at the nature reserve.
Creek was found with a plastic garbage bag around her head, which was used to kill her by asphyxiation. She had been extensively physically abused, including being beaten and raped, slashed in the facial area, and bitten on the neck causing compression which played a role in her death. The word "hi" was written on the girl's palm, which was raised in an upward position. A price tag from a bookstore was observed to have been present on one of her arms. She wore few clothes, as some were likely removed in the process of the assault, including her jacket and backpack containing personal items. Her underwear was later discovered inside of her pants pocket. Her belongings were not found at the scene, and it is possible that the murderer took these as souvenirs. Authorities surmise that Creek may have been murdered by someone that may have received prostitution services from her.
Around one hundred Wisconsin inhabitants attended the then-unidentified victim's funeral where she was buried in a donated casket. Initially, Creek was buried in a grave that read "Jane Doe" due to the fact that her identity was not yet known. She was later reburied and a new headstone was created that bore her name and lifespan.
Investigation
Police reportedly spent thousands of hours comparing DNA, dental records and fingerprints to many different missing person cases. Consequently, her body was not positively identified until June 26, 1998. DNA and dental records helped to confirm the identification. After viewing the television show America's Most Wanted that aired in December 1998, which documented the case, Creek's father had notified police that he suspected that the body belonged to his daughter. When Creek had first vanished, she was not reported missing for five weeks, as her history of running away had prevented investigation. After the identification, laws in the state were changed to prevent an issue like this from happening again.